The Brother
by Kain Everguard
Summary: Shirou Emiya survived the Fuyuki fire, however, he did not survive it alone. His brother also survived the ordeal. Under a magus' teachings, how will the two brothers survive the Grail War?


**Some of you might say that I should focus on the Campione of Heroes.**

**But I will probably ignore that and write this as well. Please review productive comments, and thank you in advance.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fate Stay Night**

* * *

It was burning.

**Die**

The ground was burning.

**Die Die**

The sky was burning.

**Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die**

The people were burning.

**Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die**

The world was burning.

**Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die**

Everything was... burning.

**Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die**

Except for two.

**?**

Two boys were stumbling through wreckage, barely escaping the fire that seemed to reach out to the two boys.

**Suffer**

One of them looked a year older than the other, and both of them looked about seven to eight years old.

**Cry**

Both of them were red haired.

**Give up**

Both of them held hands with each other.

**Be Pained**

In the forest of fires, the older boy kept dragging the other boy's hand, for the younger one was already broken.

**Let go**

In order to stay alive, the younger boy had abandoned those that made him him to the fire, following the hand that clutched onto him as the only incentive to keep walking in this inferno.

**Abandon**

The older boy, prompted by his desire to see his younger brother alive through this ordeal, dragged the already-empty brother through the maze of fire.

**Kill...**

There were screams.

There were pleas from others burning around them.

There were deaths

There wer-

A support beam for a building crashed down, flattening all those that burned inside to finally be released from their pain. From the concrete beam, a stray piece of concrete dislodged itself, flying toward the older boy, who was looking at his younger brother and trying to drag the other boy on toward a safer place.

The slab of concrete smashed into the older boy's back, ripping out the flesh of his back and crushing some of the backbones while cauterizing the wound at the same time.

The older boy screamed.

The younger boy was similarly struck with flaming pieces of wood and was injured as well, and his degree of injury was comparable to the older boy's injury, the flames scorching away the shoulder and leaving a bloody burned mess, the left hand hanging limply by the side and blood spurting from his wounds.

The older boy, with sheer force of will, dragged the other boy further through the maze of corpses and fires, his broken ribs showing from his back with burned skin as he struggled through.

However, they both reached the end of their struggle, and fell amidst the sea of flames.

Despite their almost inhumane will to survive, they were humans, after all.

The older boy tried to stand once more, but failed and collapsed on the ground, spewing blood from his mouth at whatever internal injury had been done when the concrete struck him on the back.

The older boy's desperate resolve finally broke and he began to weep.

The flood of reasons rushed at him, leaving him slightly choking up blood as tears ran down his face, lying his front body down on the burning ground and looking at his brother

Was he crying for himself?

For his younger brother?

For their dead parents?

For the world that burned around them?

Or... was it for everything above?

Regardless of why the older boy was crying, the younger boy did not look at the older boy and just looked at the sky, which was beginning to rain.

He did not cry.

He did not blink.

He used the last remnants of his power to stretch out his right hand toward the sky.

He held the hand up in the air for a few seconds.

Then, he let it fall.

…

…

...

But it did not fall.

A tight hand grasped the frail hand as though it was a lifeline, keeping it from hitting the ground.

A black haired man of late twenties held on to the younger boy's hand. He was a man of normally grim expression, dressed in a black suit with black necktie and a black coat.

He was crying.

He was crying with joy at being able to save someone inside this hell that he had indirectly caused.

The broken boy who saw the man wished to be as happy as the man who was holding his hand.

Then he fell unconscious due to the injury and exhaustion he sustained.

The older boy saw the man saving his younger brother and gave out a desperate cry for help.

Was it to save himself?

Or was it to save his brother?

Regardless of what his intention was at that moment, it let the black haired man notice that the other boy was alive as well.

With his last cry for help, the older boy fell unconscious with his brother, his immeasurable strength as a eight year old finally depleting.

* * *

The younger boy woke up as he squinted at the light above him.

'So bright,' he thinks.

It was just entering his eyes when he woke up, but he was not used to it.

He probably did not understand what the bright light meant.

"Huh?" The younger boy said inquisitively as he focused his eyes, the unfamiliar bed and unfamiliar room having the clean and orderly feeling that made him feel safe.

"...Where am I?" He murmured as he looked around. The room he was staying in was very big, and there were many beds. There was a person in each bed, and everyone seemed to be hurt.

One boy caught his eyes.

A messy red hair and a face similar to his own. However, the other boy was sleeping, and he had a cast around his body and left arm.

The first thing that entered his mind when he looked at the boy was:

'Who is he?'

However, even as he looked at the other boy, the other boy did not wake up.

So his eyes began to wonder, and his eyes arrived at the unbelievably beautiful sky outside his window.

Days passed.

The younger boy spent his time in the bed of the hospital doing not much anything but eating with help and recovering his strength.

And he began to understand.

He remembered that there was a great fire.

And that he survived the said fire.

However, he forgot pretty much everything else.

Such as the identity of the other boy that was still sleeping in front of him.

He was not alone in some sense, but with the children around him that had lost their own parents, he understood that even though the boy in front of him woke up, they would be alone.

If he even woke up.

* * *

The older boy woke up on the day the man came to see them, when the younger boy was beginning to worry what would happen to him and the boy in front of him.

The older boy squinted his eyes, blinded by the white light above him. Then,, he slowly opened his eyes.

And he stared confusedly at the ceiling above him.

'Where am I?' He thought, looking at the white squared tiles of the ceiling.

Then, pain suddenly lanced through his back, making him arch his back in pained reaction.

He tried to voice his confusion and fear at the sudden pain, but only croaking sound came out of his throat.

"Ah! He's up!" A voice that he recognized in his mind, yet seemed so far away presented itself in front of him.

'The voice... Who was it...?" The older boy's hazy mind made it difficult for him to bring up his memories, as if he was looking at a giant construction that was filled with static.

However, like a truck, it smashed into him with brute force a moment later.

[Static]

The family of four, with his mother, father, and younger brother driving to their new house, back in the homeland of his father at the late of the night after a long flight from the United States.

[Static]

The mass of red and black flood, coming straight at them rapidly through the streets as though it was a beast, no, a monster hungry for food.

[Static]

Father, urging his family in front of him as they ran, being swallowed up in the black mass a few moments later as he pushed his family up a side of...[Static]... What?

[Static]

Their mother, holding onto them with a vice-like grip and murmuring that all will be alright, when it clearly wasn't, trying to convince them and herself that they would survive the sudden catastrophe.

[Static]

They ran to the top of a two story building, going to the top as much as possible in order to stay away from the surging fire.

[Static]

The liquid burned through the concrete in the floors below, making the building crumble with the lack of support, their mother frantically pushing them toward the side of the building that was not tilting downward.

[Static]

Pain, absolute pain that reverberated through his body. Opening his eyes and looking at his brother who was laying on his side, making him crawl to his brother and shake him weakly, which gave no response, seeing the red ooze that slowly came out of his brother's head blankly, unable to do anything.

[Static]

Tears of sadness welling up in his mind at the thought that everybody was dead except him. The despair that was brought up in his heart at the situation he is currently in, and the fear that creeped up in his mind as his primary survival instinct kicked in, making him look at the surrounding.

[Static]

The remains of a building, slowly melting due to the black liquid, with the piles of concretes having them above the flow of the black liquid which seemed to call out to him.

[Static]

Walking toward the liquid, his mind unable to call him from approaching the liquid, making him reach out toward the liquid-

[Static]

A call

[Static]

A call for his name

[Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][S tatic][Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][Sta tic][Static]

His mind, finally gaining control of his own body and turning around to find his mother, calling out to him under a pile of rubble.

[Static][Static][Static]

Kneeling up beside the rubble, where a red liquid continued to pour from the cracks in the rubble, calling up his mother's name in both relief and panic. Mother's assurance that she is alright and that he doesn't have to worry, her voice soothing his frayed nerves.

[Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][S tatic][Static]

A song.

[Static][Static]

A song slowly croaked by the mother who desperately tried to calm her boy, and succeeding in her endeavors.

[Static][Static][Static][Static][Static]

The mother, giving her son a task to protect his brother and leave her behind, making the boy tear up once again, but assuring that she will get out from the pile of concrete and follow them afterwards, even as her voice began to get smaller and smaller. She continued to speak with a tone of false bravado that she won't die, even in this kind of situation.

[Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][S tatic][Static][Static][Static][Static]

The red and black liquid continued to melt the pile of rubble and close in on them.

[Static][Static][Static][Static]

Other buildings collapsed, building a path which the boy and his brother could escape through.

[Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][Static]

The boy, leaving his mother who has become strangely silent after assigning her boy a task that should be normally impossible: to get out of this apocalypse alive with his brother.

[Static][Static][Static]

Running in the ruined part of the town, unable to see five feet in front of them due to the fire and smoke with his brother stumbling blackly behind him.

[Static][Static][Static]

Gasping for shallow breathes in a sea of red and black

[Static][Static][Static]

Trying to survive...

[Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][S tatic][Static]

**Die...**

[Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][S tatic][Static]

**Die... Die...Die...Die...**

[Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][S tatic][Static]

DieDieDieDieDieDieDie

[Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][S tatic][Static]

**NO**

[Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][S tatic][Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][Sta tic][Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][Stati c][Static]

**?**

[Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][S tatic][Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][Sta tic][Static][Static][Static][Static][Static]

**No?**

[Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][S tatic][Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][Sta tic][Static][Static]

**NO**

[Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][S tatic][Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][Sta tic][Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][Stati c][Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][Static] [Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][S tatic][Static][Static][Static][Static][Static][Sta tic][Static][Static][Static][Static]

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The boy screamed out, tears falling from his eyes in a cascade of clear droplets that fell down from his face as he sat up on his bed, ignoring the lance of pain that arched up his back as he did so.

"Mama-! Mama-!" The boy cried out as the emotions that he sealed up with the help of his mother in that moment in the rubble came breaking down with the influx of memories striking at his fragile mind.

Soon, a nurse came running down due to the commotion, and tried to comfort the boy, who clung onto her, seeking for any kind of maternal support and finding the nearest one on the lady who tried to take care of him.

However, no matter what she did, the boy kept on sobbing, unwilling to stop his cry, the wound in his heart too deep and raw.

...

A small hand touched his cheek.

"There there."

A voice.

A voice that he was familiar with.

A voice similar to his own, but only bit more childish.

The older boy opened his eyes and looked at the smaller boy that looked so much like him with only a slight difference in their facial feature.

The crying stopped.

A croak came out from his mouth.

"Ah..."

"Ahhhh..."

"AAAAAhhhhhh..."

With a longing expression, the boy stared at his younger brother, reaching out his hand hesitantly as if he was unable to determine if the being standing in front of him was really there and not just a figment of his exhausted mind.

The younger brother hugged the older one, and the older one felt warmth.

"...Shirou..."

A name was rattled out.

With the tears still falling from his eyes, the older boy fell asleep, exhausted by the sudden endeavor, and the small amount of relief at the prospect that he had saved at least one of his family.

* * *

"Would you like to come with us?" The man asked the same day he had woken up.

Us, not me.

The boy standing beside the black haired dressed in completely black suit with black trenchcoat was his brother, and he had already chosen to go with the man.

For what reason, he had some idea in his still groggy mind.

They might have had relatives, like their grandparents and aunts and uncles, however, they lived in the similar area as their house, and their drive that night was only a minute away from their house. If none of the relatives came to pick them up during the week, he did not hold the illusion that they might be alive. Also, their relatives in the United States... He did not even remember their name.

So... "Alright." He said, nodding briefly, and his answer made the man in black smile briefly, as if he was relieved that he would hold a piece that kept him who he was.

* * *

This is a story of two brothers, that are adopted by a magus.

They are similar, yet they never will be the same.

One of them will wish to be a hero.

The other will wish to save those that are precious to him, no matter what the price is.

Each of these conflicting unbreakable ideals will manifest in one and the other.

What their future will be is uncertain.

However, with one boy's survival, everything will change

* * *

**Yaay.**

**Review.**

**Want to get other people's perspective on this story.**


End file.
